One of the most important effects and the most often produced effect caused when a high energy laser pulse interacts with a surface is the formation of a bubble of low density hot gas. The gas is primarily heated air but it may also contain gases from material vaporized from the surface or from paint if the surface was painted. These bubbles of low density hot gases expand into or become ingested by the system or causing some change in the system's operating characteristics.
It is desirable to simulate this effect of a high energy pulsed laser without using a large expensive laser device. The simulator makes testing possible at locations where lasers are not available and, more importantly, it makes it possible to simulate the effects that would be produced by lasers with outputs much larger than existing lasers can produce. Thus, the expense of developing such large and costly facilities can be avoided until after their potential utility has been established.
A device has recently been disclosed by Otto et al, in a patent application entitled "Pulsed Gas Supply", Ser. No. 789,859, filed Oct. 21, 1985 which may be used to address the results that are obtained when bubbles of low density, but cold gas, are used to simulate this portion of the effects produced by a high energy pulsed laser. The essential part of the Otto et al device is a fast acting valve which is capable of repetitively releasing a bubble of low density gas. The device is also useful in pulsed chemical laser devices where pulses of gas for fuel and oxidizers are required on a repetitive basis. However, it is not capable of simulating the entire results of bubbles of low density hot gas that is produced when a high energy repetitively pulsed laser beam interacts with a material surface, and a need exists for such a simulator.
It is, therefore, an object of this disclosure to provide a laser effects simulator which produces bubbles of low density hot gases repetitively as a high energy repetitively pulsed laser produces.